Startup supporter Differential is looking to get in on the Bitcoin game, with plans to launch a project called SimpleCoin in coming weeks.

Bitcoin is a digital currency, or cryptocurrency, that was first introduced in 2009 but recently gained publicity, traction and more widespread use.

“We basically recognize that Bitcoin is obviously on the rise,” Differential partner Ry Walker told me. “I feel like it’s still super, super early in what’s going on. Most people don’t know what Bitcoin is, much less how to build a business around it. Simplecoin for us is a group of experiments in building businesses around the cryptocurrency space.”

Walker said Differential will be running five to six different experiments with Bitcoin to see if businesses can be built around the currency. He told me he couldn’t disclose most of them but did say that one would likely involve educating and encouraging merchants to accept Bitcoin locally and another would involve Bitcoin mining – the practice of solving complex math problems online in exchange for Bitcoins.

Differential is finalizing deals with investors to fund SimpleCoin but the plan is to launch within six weeks, Walker said. He told me Differential would have a more formal announcement on the experiments SimpleCoin would be running after they have been going on for a few months.

The venture, as with any new development in its early stages, isn’t without risk.

“To me, it’s definitely the Wild Wild West,” Walker said. “It’s similar to how the Internet felt in the early ‘90s. I started building websites in ’94, and nobody really understood what the Internet is. It’s kind of like that.”

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